A Father To His Son (Poem)

Unit 5 – Poem

A Father to his Son

Carl August Sandburg

Warm Up

Every parent is anxious about the welfare of his / her children. Parents express their anxiety by advising them almost all the time.
What kind of advice do you frequently receive from your parents? Fill in the bubbles. Tick the ones you like to follow implicitly and give reasons for the ones you don’t like to follow.

• Wash your fingers before eating.
• Don’t stay awake till late night.
• Who are you talking to over the phone for a long time?

The Poem

A father sees his son nearing manhood.
What shall he tell that son?

“Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”
And this might stand him for the storms
and serve him for humdrum monotony
and guide him among sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.

“Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.”
And this too might serve him.
Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.
The growth of a frail flower in a path up
has sometimes shattered and split a rock.

A tough will counts. So does desire.
So does a rich soft wanting.
Without rich wanting nothing arrives.

Tell him too much money has killed men
and left them dead years before burial:
the quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs
has twisted good enough men
sometimes into dry thwarted worms.

Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a fool ever so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies
thus arriving at intimate understanding
of a world numbering many fools.

Tell him to be alone often and get at himself
and above all tell himself no lies about himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use against other people.

Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.

Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is born natural.
Then he may understand Shakespeare
and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
Michael Faraday and free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.

He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work
he knows as his own.

About the Author

“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment.”
— Carl Sandburg

Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, to parents of Swedish ancestry. Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, writer, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as “a major figure in contemporary literature”, especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), and Smoke and Steel (1920). He enjoyed unrivalled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life, and at his death in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed that “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.”

Glossary

• humdrum – boring routine
• monotony – lack of variety and interest
• soft loam – fertile soil
• lashes – whips
• thwarted – frustrated
• white lies – lies told to avoid hurting one’s feelings
• quest of lucre – money gained in a dishonourable way
• resenting – disliking

1. Fill in the blanks

(Choose words from the box: deep desire, manhood, gentleness, mistakes, easy, leisure, fool, repeat, tender-flower, rock, challenges, wisdom, life, money, changes, introspect, inherent, work, resents, white lies, creative, final decisions, different)

Lines 1-25
The poet Carl Sandburg gives a vivid description of a father’s worldly (1) wisdom in directing a son who is at the threshold of his (2) manhood. Here the father motivates his son to be like a hard (3) rock and withstand life’s (4) challenges and sudden betrayals. (5) Life is like a fertile soil. We can make our life fruitful if we are gentle, and take life as it comes. At times (6) gentleness overtakes harshness. The growth of a (7) tender-flower can split a rock. One should have a (8) deep desire and strong will to achieve. Greed for (9) money has left men dead before they really die. Good men also have fallen prey in quest for (10) easy money. Time for (11) leisure is not a waste. When you seek knowledge never feel ashamed to be called a (12) fool for not knowing, at the same time learn from your (13) mistakes and never (14) repeat it.

Lines 26-44
Do (15) introspect often, and do not hesitate to accept your shortcomings, avoid (16) white lies to protect self against other people. Solitude helps to be (17) creative and (18) final decisions are taken in silent rooms. Instead of being one among many, be (19) different, if that is your nature. The son may need lazy days to find his (20) inherent abilities, to seek what he is born for. He will then know how free imaginations bring (21) changes to the world, which (22) resents change. During such resentment, let him know that it is time for him to be on his own, and one (23) work to achieve like Shakespeare, the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov and Michael Faraday.

2. Based on your understanding of the poem answer the following questions in one or two sentences.

a) How would the poet’s advice help his son who is at the threshold of manhood?
The balanced advice—both steel-like strength and gentle adaptability—prepares the son to face life’s varied challenges with resilience and humanity.

b) ‘A tough will counts.’ Explain.
Determination and strong desire are essential to achieve anything meaningful in life.

c) What happened to the people who wanted too much money?
They became spiritually dead, turned into “dry thwarted worms” long before physical death.

d) What has twisted good men into thwarted worms?
The excessive quest of lucre (greed for money) beyond basic needs.

e) How would his being alone help the boy?
Solitude fosters self-examination, creativity, and clarity for making final decisions.

f) Where are the final decisions taken?
In silent rooms—symbolizing quiet introspection away from crowd influence.

g) What are the poet’s thoughts on ‘being different’?
One should be different naturally and easily, not forcedly, to fulfil one’s unique potential.

h) Why does the poet advise his son to have lazy days?
Lazy days allow deeper self-exploration to discover inherent talents and motives.

i) The poet says ‘Without rich wanting nothing arrives’ but he condemns ‘the quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs.’ Analyse the difference and write.
Rich wanting is noble desire for growth; quest of lucre is obsessive greed for money—one inspires life, the other destroys it.

3. Poetic Devices

a) Antithesis – emphasises contrast
e.g. “The growth of a frail flower … has … split a rock. Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.”

b) Transferred Epithet – epithet grammatically qualifies a different noun
e.g. “left them dead years before burial”

c) Repetition
e.g. “Tell him to be alone often … tell himself no lies about himself”

4. Read the lines and answer

a) “Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”
i) Face life with unyielding strength.
ii) Metaphor – life compared to steel/rock.

b) “Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.”
i) Gentleness can achieve what force cannot.
ii) Metaphor – life compared to fertile soil.

c) “Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong … final decisions are made in silent rooms.”
i) Yes; solitude nurtures creativity and clear decision-making.
ii) Personification – solitude is “creative”; decisions “made in silent rooms.”

d) “Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted. Tell him to be a fool every so often”
i) Accept occasional unproductive time as part of learning.
ii) Metaphor – time is “stuff.”

e) “Tell him to be a fool ever so often … repeat none of the cheap follies”
i) No; being a fool occasionally is a learning experience.
ii) One learns what to avoid in future.

f) “Free imaginations Bringing changes into a world resenting change.”
i) Creative ideas drive progress even in resistant societies.
ii) Personification – world “resenting.”

g) Alliteration
“And this might stand him for the storms” – s sound repeated.

5. Explain with reference to context

a) “and guide him among sudden betrayals and tighten him for slack moments.”
Father wants advice that steels the son against unexpected treachery and keeps him vigilant during dull periods.

b) “Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.”
Gentleness can reform even brutal beings where harsh punishment fails.

c) “Yet learning something out of every folly hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies”
Embrace mistakes as lessons to avoid repeating foolish acts.

d) “He will be lonely enough to have time for the work he knows as his own.”
Meaningful achievement requires solitary dedication to one’s true calling.

6. Answer in 100-150 words each

a) Explain how the poet guides his son who is at the threshold of manhood, to face the challenges of life.
The poet offers dual counsel: be steel to endure storms, betrayals, monotony; be gentle like soft loam to harness creativity and kindness. He warns against greed, advocates learning through folly, values solitude for self-discovery, and encourages natural individuality. This balanced roadmap equips the son to navigate both harsh and tender aspects of life with wisdom and integrity.

b) How according to the poet is it possible for his son to bring changes into a world that resents change?
By nurturing free imaginations during reflective solitude, the son can generate original ideas. Accepting loneliness, he gains time to develop innovations akin to Shakespeare or the Wright brothers. Persistence and inner conviction enable him to introduce changes even into a resistant world.

Listening

Listen to the poem read by the teacher or to the recorded version and write a synopsis in about 100 words. The teacher can choose any three stanzas.
(Student activity – space provided in book.)

Speaking

“Tell him too much money has killed men and left them dead years before burial.”
Discuss the dangers of unchecked greed and share real-life examples.

Parallel Reading

From William Shakespeare’s Hamlet – Polonius’s advice to Laertes

Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!